Intermediate Workout

Who is at an Intermediate Level?

This exercise routine is for those who are at an intermediate level.
Who is at an intermediate level? To keep it simple, a person exercising
at an intermediate level is someone who:

1. has consistently exercised for six to eight weeks and is fully comfortable
with using resistance bands or lightweight dumbbells.

2. has experienced muscle soreness and is no longer sore after performing
consecutive workouts.

3. understands that warming up before each exercise routine is important.

4. understands the difference between high rep endurance exercises and
low to moderate rep strength and toning exercises.

5. understands that the entire body must be worked out evenly so that
the body can remain balanced.

Someone at an intermediate level should be able to understand these important
concepts of designing workout routines. Now, with that being said, let's
go ahead and jump into an intermediate workout.

Exercise One: Squat with Shoulder Press

This workout is challenging, will definitely get your heart rate up,
and definitely make you sweat and wear you out. First, we are going
to warm-up the muscles in your lower and upper extremities. We will
go ahead and start off with the Squat with Shoulder Press exercise.
This is a great choice
as a first exercise to include in an intermediate level workout because
the Squat with Shoulder Press will strengthen your hamstrings, quadriceps,
glutes, core muscles, shoulder, tricep and chest muscles. Basically
this serves as a good warm-up exercise before you begin the other
exercises. Let's go ahead and get started.

For this exercise you will need a pair of dumbbells or a barbell.

Grab one dumbbell in each hand. Bring the dumbbells up in front of
you, to the level of your shoulders, with your palms facing away
from you.

Place your feet shoulder width apart.

To begin, move the trunk
of your body down into a squat and stop right before your knees are
90 degrees. Try to keep your back as straight as possible and be
sure not to move the dumbbells while you're moving down into your
squat.

The next action is to push off with your legs so that you're
returning your body back to the starting position. As you are returning
your body back to the starting position, push the dumbbells up over
your head while extending your arms. At the end of this action your
legs and arms should be fully extended.

Now, slowly bring the dumbbells
back to the level of your chest, while bending your knees back into
a squat. At the end of this motion, you should be in a squatting
position with the dumbbells at the level of your chest.

Once again,
extend your knees and push the dumbbells in the air.

For this intermediate
workout I want you to perform each movement over a four-second up,
four-second down period so we can make sure to avoid momentum when
doing these exercises. Perform three sets of 8-12 repetitions.

Tips for Squat with Shoulder Press

Work on coordinating the squat with the shoulder press movement. Take your
time when first doing this exercise to make sure you are standing up from
your squat at the same time you are extending your arms for the shoulder
press. Make sure that you are bringing your arms down from the shoulder press
at the same time you are moving down into your squat.

Exhale while moving up to a fully extended position and inhale when moving
down into a squatting position.